Coach-in-waiting invites dissention

By Dwight CollinsStaff writer

Tuesday

Oct 27, 2009 at 11:31 PMOct 27, 2009 at 11:32 PM

The “coach-in-waiting.” It’s college football’s new trend of having your cake and eating it, too.

The “coach-in-waiting.” It’s college football’s new trend of having your cake and eating it, too.Thank Florida State for the business model. The Seminoles were so sure Bobby Bowden would leave a succession of five-loss seasons in a garnet-and-golden parachute they took Jimbo Fisher — the hot name — off the market, and cooled him right down.There are promises of millions, which await. There was the factor of learning the FSU program from top to bottom, which has happened, for better or for worse. There is the idea of one day being FSU head man, which seems to get further away with every win over BYU or North Carolina.The business model is likely to go the way of widespread rail travel, pay phones and large cash transactions, but not before Texas, Maryland and Kentucky became so intrigued they subscribed to it. Will Muschamp, James Franklin and Joker Phillips, respectively, are circling those campuses like buzzards in flight.Fisher is the buzzard who keeps getting shooed, hopping away from what looks like a satisfying meal when the topic of Bowden’s retirement comes up and the house-divided traits of FSU re-emerge.Don’t blame Fisher. He was tapped to become a time-release multi-millionaire, and knew one day he would hold the reins of a powerhouse program. Who couldn’t get excited over that combination?Don’t blame Bowden. I doubt he is responsible for the language in Fisher’s contract, or was the person who engraved 2010 in his coaching tombstone. He just can’t turn over for adoption the program he raised from ashes to fireball, no matter its current direction.The problem is the new fad.The “coach-in-waiting” concept invites dissension in the ranks and promises hurt feelings that will linger even after the transfer of power has been notarized.If you are “coach-in-waiting” — but not the coach — after two years of working within those parameters, wouldn’t you think levels of frustration you didn’t know existed would reveal themselves?Where exactly would you expect the allegiances of everyone else on the staff to reside? With the old coach, who they owe so much? Or, to the chosen one, who they hope retains them on the future staff? Chances are the ChapStick would disappear before the school nurse gets to accumulate five sticks in her drawer.Insubordination, or alienate the “coach-in-waiting?” Tough choice.It’s a new practice that has gotten old quickly. It’s better to let things run their courses, then get your university’s name in headlines for a while during a coaching search, and let the fans get excited about the prospects and available scenarios. Most FSU fans aren’t old enough to know what that feels like.RANDOM THOUGHTS: I wonder if, during Sunday’s national anthem, Tom Brady mistook the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the London Silly Nannies — his opponent in a “Family Guy” episode — on the Wembley Stadium turf? ... So, the NFL can fine you for having a jersey untucked, but not for widespread use of vanilla-fudge-swirl socks? Wow. ... Only at UCLA could pop star Shakira take a Western Civ class and not be recognized as something other than a boy, which she said she looked like with a cap and backpack.Contact Dwight Collins at dwight.collins@starbanner.com.

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